Carpe f**king diem, betches.
“One day, she finally grasped that unexpected things were always going to happen in life. And with that, she realized the only control she had was how she chose to handle them. So she made the decision to survive using courage, humor and grace. She was the queen of her own life and the choice was hers.” -Queenisms
People always tell you to live each day like it is your last, but in reality, if I think today is going to be my last day here on earth I wouldn’t be sitting in the Harry Potter room in the library right now writing a last-minute article for The Odyssey. For me, at least, “seizing the day” is all about looking at everything in a positive light. Yeah, I might be sitting here stressed out about my 8 a.m. exam tomorrow morning, but do you know how many people would kill to be in my shoes? Even when you want to curl up in a ball, think of all of the people who do not have the opportunity to go to school, cram for finals and obtain an education from a top university.
Here is my favorite quote of all time to get you in the mood to be happy:
"Maybe the truth is, there's a little bit of loser is all of us, you know? Being happy isn't having everything in your life be perfect. Maybe it's about stringing together all of the little things in life ... making those count for more than the bad stuff. Or maybe we just get through it, and that's all we can ask for." -Anne Brashares
Life knocks us all down sometimes and shows us things we’d rather not see. We have all faced hardships and big, fat failures, but one thing is for sure — you must always get back up.
Be kind to people. Be selfless in your acts towards others, see the good in people and, most importantly, treat others the way you want to be treated. The golden rule never fails, people!!!
Love yourself. Who is ever going to want to love you if you don’t love yourself first? Nothing turns someone off more than your hating yourself and complaining about it. If you think you’re looking chub today, hit the gym and start eating healthy. I am so sick of hearing people say, “I hate this, I hate that about myself.” Spend less time complaining about it, and do something. You are never going to be perfect in your eyes, but you can at least try to better yourself.
Have a purpose. Everyone has a passion and everyone is on this earth for a specific reason. Find something you enjoy and put everything you have into it. If you are having trouble finding something you are passionate about then you better start trying out different things, because right now, you’re just wasting time being irrelevant, purposeless and miserable.
Forgive. Everyone deserves a second chance and an opportunity to redeem themselves. Well, almost everyone.
Give back, especially when you are weak. When you feel like nothing is going your way, you’ve tried to fix things and are just in a slump, give back to someone who is going to appreciate all of your efforts. Seriously, when you can’t help yourself, help someone else. For example, when I was in high school I was in a “my life is so hard — why me?" slump. So dramatic. I was having trouble looking on the bright side of things, so I decided to go on a mission trip to the Bahamas. A little extreme, I know, but after helping the locals rebuild their homes and seeing how thankful and positive they were about the little things, it gave me a new perspective on life. It made me realize that my life is pretty damn great, despite the hurdles that are thrown at me.
